Russia Restricts Uranium Exports to US in Response to Sanctions

Russia has imposed temporary restrictions on the export of enriched uranium to the United States, the government press service reported.

"A decree on this has been signed. We are talking about the export of enriched uranium to the United States or under foreign trade agreements concluded with persons registered in the jurisdiction of the United States," the statement says.

The exception is supplies under one-time licenses issued by the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control. The decision was made on the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to the sanctions imposed by the United States.

In September, Putin suggested considering "certain restrictions" on the supply of nickel, uranium, titanium and other items to the foreign market. He stressed that introducing such restrictions would be "to one's own detriment," but if they do not have negative consequences for Russia, then the government should think about it.

In May, US President Joe Biden signed a law banning the import of Russian uranium. The document was passed by both houses of the US Congress. The ban is intended to "strengthen energy and economic security," the White House said. The restriction will be in effect until 2040, but until January 2028, the Ministry of Energy, in agreement with the State Department and the Ministry of Finance, will be able to issue permits to purchase uranium from Russia if there are no other sources of supply.

According to Bloomberg , Russia supplies the United States with about 20% of the enriched uranium used to fuel American nuclear power plants, making it the top foreign supplier to the American market. These sales bring Moscow about $1 billion annually, the agency notes. Replacing supplies from Russia could be difficult and carries the risk of raising the cost of fuel by about 20% (to more than $200 per pound), the agency notes.

Uranium is currently trading close to its annual lows: on the COMEX exchange, November futures for uranium oxide (U3O8) are quoted at $79 per pound. In September, when Vladimir Putin first proposed limiting uranium exports, its price rose by 0.8%, but then continued to fall as fears of a raw material shortage gradually dissipated. At the beginning of the year, the price of uranium briefly reached $109.85 per pound; since then, quotes have fallen by almost 30%.

Uranium prices rose after news of Russia's restrictions became known , with November 2025 futures up $4 to $84, according to data from UxC. "Many sellers are holding back on offerings in the market for now, weighing the implications," UxC chief executive Jonathan Hinze told Reuters .

After the ban on uranium imports from Russia, the US, apparently, continued to receive Russian raw materials only through China , noted FG Finam analyst Nikolai Dudchenko.

"Russian uranium has so far suffered the fate of other Russian energy resources. China has cleverly integrated into the supply chain, sharply increasing uranium imports from Russia in 2022 and 2023, and is now breaking records for exporting the same raw material to the United States... If everything goes the same way as with Russian oil and gas, we may never see any serious reversals in the market against this backdrop," he wrote in an analytical note.

The US can cope without Russian uranium, but the parties have every incentive to establish supplies in circumvention of the restrictions, agrees Ilya Zharsky, Managing Partner of the Veta Expert Group: “Russian uranium can probably be partially replaced with supplies from other countries, since, in addition to Russia, uranium is supplied to the US by Kazakh, Uzbek, French and Canadian companies, however, for example, Kazakhstan’s Kazatomprom is often associated with Russia’s Rosatom, so in theory, given the US’s continuing dependence on Russian uranium, supply restrictions can be circumvented, since we are talking about supplying strategically important enterprises and, simply, about very large sums of money.”

Replacing Russian uranium will still be quite difficult, says Vasily Danilov, an analyst at VELES Capital: “Despite the fact that Russia accounts for only about 5% of the world’s mined uranium, our country controls 40% of the world’s enrichment capacities. This means that it is impossible to quickly replace Russia on the global uranium market, but the fact that the main reserves of uranium ore are located outside our country theoretically allows us to create additional capacities to replace Russian ones.”

Zharsky does not believe in the possibility of quickly replacing Russian raw materials, so restrictions on uranium supplies may still affect prices. "This automatically increases demand from other sources, where the same uranium has not yet been produced in the quantities required by the market. Moreover, we are talking about a complex element, significant investments and the availability of special technologies, so it will not be possible to quickly replace uranium production. Accordingly, the increase in prices will affect Russian producers that are engaged in exports, these are mainly divisions of Rosatom, such as TVEL," the expert points out.